


Countdown

by Tammaiya



Category: X -エックス- | X/1999
Genre: Christmas Presents, Crack, From Beyond the Grave, Hokuto being Hokuto, M/M, true dedication to the cause
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-12-25
Updated: 2004-12-25
Packaged: 2018-08-11 18:59:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7904002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tammaiya/pseuds/Tammaiya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's six nights until Christmas Eve, and Subaru has a present from his very deceased sister that he's not allowed to open until then. Will he go insane? Did his sister do this just to spite him from the grave? Why is this his life, anyway?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Countdown

It was about a week before Christmas, and Subaru stared at the package in his hands with something approaching sheer bewilderment. It wasn't so much that he had received a Christmas present-- which, granted, had not happened for a very long time-- but rather the identity of the sender.  
  
There was something fundamentally wrong with a dead person writing in pink sparkly gel pen, Subaru felt, but at the same time it was so incredibly Hokuto that he could only helplessly accept that his dead twin had in fact sent him a Christmas present nine years after her death.  
  
He suddenly found himself wondering why his sister had chosen this _particular_ Christmas, and then quietly proceeded to worry about what harebrained scheme she had come up with this time. He didn't think he was being overly unfair; after all, this was Hokuto. It was a fair assumption that if she were responsible for a stunt like this there would be a certain level of insanity (on her part) and public humiliation (on his part) involved. Usually, it would also involve Seishirou.  
  
Subaru didn't think it was too much to ask for to hope that this time he would at least be spared _that_ indignity. Even Hokuto wouldn't do that after everything that had happened, would she?  
  
… Silly question. This was _Hokuto_.  
  
Now well and truly afraid, Subaru began to contemplate the logistics of sending Christmas presents from beyond the grave (and, for that matter, the logistics of acquiring pink sparkly gel pens from beyond the grave). In one of his darker and more irrational moments, he'd once tried to summon Hokuto's spirit. It was a stupid thing to do, as it basically contradicted everything the Sumeragi head was supposed to stand for, but his grandmother was far away and Subaru was beyond caring at the time. He'd felt guilty later, of course, but that was when what was done was done.  
  
The thing was, though, nothing had happened. Hokuto's soul had moved on-- or been trapped in the Tree, though Subaru didn't like to even consider that-- to wherever people went after they died. Subaru had never really thought about where that might be, before; his job was sending spirits on, not worrying about where they had gone.  
  
Now, though, he found his very vague ideas of theology being rudely rearranged; his half-formed concepts of the after-life had never included the dead directly effecting the living, and certainly not in such an obvious and tangible way as this. It was, after all, supposedly his job to prevent things like that from happening.  
  
His theology had never had to deal with pink sparkly gel pen before, either. Subaru was aware that perhaps he ought to stop fixating on this, but… well, focussing on the more absurd aspect of the whole event prevented him from thinking about the more worrying fact that his dead sister was giving him Christmas presents and he was possibly going insane.  
  
Subaru sighed and pushed the present under his bed for later inspection. On the tag, in unmistakable loopy pink hiragana, Hokuto's greeting read:  
  
"Dear Subaru,  
  
Merry Christmas! You'd better recognise my handwriting or I'll be mad!! Oh yeah, don't open this or even PEEK before Christmas Eve- if you do I'll know, and I WILL NOT BE HAPPY, OKAY?!  
  
Love, Hokuto"  
  
Subaru was not naturally a nosy person, unlike his sister, but this command would try the curiosity of the most saintly of recipients. He couldn't help but wonder if maybe Hokuto was _trying_ to send him crazy, between that and the inexplicable appearance of the gift itself.  
  
Christmas Eve: six nights to go and counting.  
  
~  
  
"Subaru, are you sure you won't come out with us on Christmas Eve?" Kamui asked anxiously.  
  
"I'm not really that into Christmas," Subaru said apologetically. "Or big celebrations. I'll be there on Christmas Day, if you like."  
  
"Well, okay," Kamui conceded, clearly disappointed but determined to respect Subaru's wishes. "Will you help decorate, then?"  
  
Unlike Subaru, Kamui _was_ a big fan of Christmas. So were Sorata and Yuzuriha, for that matter. For the next few days the Imonoyama mansion would be filled with tinsel, Sorata's off-tune singing and general Christmas cheer, not to mention a present Subaru wasn't allowed to open.  
  
Subaru sighed. Five nights.  
  
~  
  
"Subaru-kun, fancy seeing you here!"  
  
Subaru was perfectly aware that if there were higher beings up there, they clearly had it in for him. This had been abundantly proved time and again throughout his life, because as far as he was aware nobody-- God or otherwise-- expressed affection by hailing down one misfortune after the other upon the innocent and undeserving.  
  
He did not need a reminder, thank you all the same.  
  
Subaru rubbed his temples wearily, feeling a distinct headache approaching, and turned guardedly to face Seishirou. "What are you doing here, and is there any way I can make you leave?"  
  
"That's not very nice, Subaru-kun. I'm hurt." Seishirou smirked, betraying the mockery of his words. "I'm doing my Christmas shopping, actually. Monou threatened to barbeque any Angel who didn't get him a present."  
  
Subaru watched him suspiciously, trying to figure out how much if any of that was supposed to be a joke. He himself had been sent on an errand to buy decorations, as Yuzuriha had been very affronted to find there was a complete lack of tinsel anywhere in the mansion.  
  
"What are you doing in the CLAMP Campus shopping mall?" he asked eventually.  
  
Seishirou shrugged nonchalantly. "The shopping district here is one of the best in Tokyo," he said flippantly, although Subaru believed that was Seishirou's motive about as much as he believed Sorata's claim that he could cook anything more impressive than instant ramen. "Are you doing Christmas shopping too, Subaru-kun?"  
  
"No," Subaru said firmly. "Christmas and I have an arrangement where neither one of us interferes with the other, and I like it that way. So if you'll excuse me, I'm going now."  
  
Before he could carry through with this intention, however, Seishirou had stopped him with a hand on his arm. "Oh, don't go yet, Subaru-kun. I think we should go out for coffee, don't you? It's been a long time since we've gone out together, and after all, it is the Christmas season."  
  
"I hate Christmas," Subaru protested, unwittingly letting himself be dragged along by the arm.  
  
"Don't be silly," Seishirou said dismissively. "You used to love it when you were sixteen."  
  
"Well I don't now," Subaru said sullenly. "And it's all your fault. Let me go, Seishirou-san, I'm not exactly going to run away."  
  
Seishirou gave him a speculative look. "Are you sure you're not?" he asked dubiously.  
  
There was very little likelihood that he'd be able to get out of it even if he did run, and it would undoubtedly be less painful if he went willingly, Subaru reasoned.  
  
"Yes," he sighed, and resigned himself to an afternoon spent in Seishirou's company drinking tea.  
  
Four nights.  
  
~  
  
"Tis the season to be jolly, falalalalala~lalalala~!" Sorata sang in broken off-key English, dancing around the room and flinging tinsel in his wake, some of which ended up draped over Subaru and Kamui.  
  
Kamui laughed and threw it back, initiating a tinsel-throwing war that soon had the carpet covered in sparkly coloured foil and Subaru curling up in an armchair pretending he was somewhere else. Possibly dead. It only got worse when Yuzuriha and Inuki joined in and the whole thing descended into a free-for-all skirmish, complete with wrestling and Yuzuriha and Sorata ganging up on Kamui to tie him up. With tinsel, of course.  
  
Quite frankly, Subaru hadn't even known that they'd had that much tinsel in the first place, and he was dreading the inevitable clean up. He'd probably have to go out and buy more, too, and that made him feel even more miserable. The only bright side he could find was that he probably wouldn't run into Seishirou if he went to the mall again, and that wasn't even a certainty.  
  
Besides, he _definitely_ wouldn't run into Seishirou if he stayed home. No bright sides, then.  
  
Just as he had accepted his fate, however, he was rescued by an unlikely saviour-- Arashi entered the room, took one glance at the mess and had given Sorata a look cold enough to freeze molten metal. "Clean it," she said flatly, and Sorata had immediately jumped to action with a somewhat sheepish expression, Kamui sniggering and mouthing something that was quite possibly 'whipped!' and Yuzuriha looking apologetic.  
  
Crisis averted. Subaru wondered why he hadn't thought of doing that, but then again, he'd probably just have ended up feeling bad when Kamui gave him the kicked puppy look. Now he was spared a second shopping excursion and was not even expected to join in with cleaning up the remnants of the tinsel warfare.  
  
He still had to deal with Sorata's singing, unfortunately. And stringing up the Christmas lights, which would almost certainly involve hours of neck-breaking risks and technical difficulties. Oh, joy.  
  
Three nights. Subaru hated Christmas.  
  
~  
  
When Subaru walked out into the kitchen the next morning for breakfast, somewhat later than was usual for him, he was alarmed to find it incredibly hot and filled with steam.  
  
"What's going on?" he asked, utterly bewildered.  
  
"Christmas pudding!" Karen exclaimed cheerfully, waving a spatula in a gesture of good tidings and accidentally splattering pudding-scented hot water on her apron and in Subaru's hair. "Oh, dear. Sorry, Subaru-san. It _is_ just water, though."  
  
"It's alright," Subaru assured her tiredly, running a hand through his now damp and possibly pudding-scented hair and wiping it with disgust on his trousers. "Ah… why are you making Christmas pudding?"  
  
Karen blinked at him, rather taken aback by this question. "Well, it's nearly Christmas."  
  
"Yes, but…" The kitchen is steamed out, Subaru wanted to say, and it smells and really, what kind of a tradition is pudding anyway? It's not like anybody actually liked pudding as much as, say, common chocolate cake. "It's not Christmas yet," he concluded lamely.  
  
Karen laughed, low and amused. "But you never cook a pudding on Christmas," she explained teasingly. "It takes a long time for them to go stale-- you always cook them in advance. Didn't you know that?"  
  
Subaru privately thought this was because puddings always tasted stale anyway, but he had enough respect for the Christmas cheer of _others_ not to say so. That did not mean, however, that he wanted to spend his day breathing in steam that smelled like pudding and suffering from headaches induced by over-enthusiastic carol singing. It was therefore logical for him to beat a hasty retreat straight after breakfast, and then, less due to logic and more thanks to a lack of any better ideas, to make a beeline towards Ueno Park.  
  
That last part had perhaps been a very bad idea, and Subaru couldn't even find it in him to be taken aback when he quite literally ran into Seishirou. In fact, he couldn't help but wonder if maybe his subconscious had betrayed him. He wouldn't be surprised; after all, fate and Seishirou had, so it made sense that his own mind would want to get in on the act.  
  
"Subaru-kun, what a coincidence seeing you again so soon," Seishirou said brightly, catching Subaru's wrists and steadying the shorter Dragon.  
  
It occurred to Subaru then that whether or not his subconscious had betrayed him, he had magical inverted pentacles on his hand for the specific purpose of tracking him, and that Seishirou sounded far too pleased with himself for a chance encounter.  
  
"Seishirou-san…" Subaru started suspiciously. "Did you do that on purpose?"  
  
"Do what?" Seishirou answered, exuding innocence like a charm.  
  
That would be a yes, then.  
  
"Why are you stalking me?" Subaru asked, getting rather annoyed, as it was beginning to seem as if the entire Christmas-loving Universe was against him.  
  
"Stalking you? I wouldn't call it that, precisely. I prefer to think of it as being aware of your location and paying you a visit."  
  
"Stalking, in other words," Subaru repeated flatly.  
  
Seishirou shrugged. "If you insist. Now, are you going to join me, or are you going to insist on arguing some more?"  
  
"That depends," Subaru says warily. "Where are we supposedly going?"  
  
"On a date."  
  
" _What_?" Subaru yelped. "Seishirou-san, what are you talking about? We're mortal enemies! You killed my sister!"  
  
"So?" Seishirou said, apparently serious. "It's Christmas!"  
  
The whole world had gone mad, Subaru realised, and he had somehow been left as the only sane person in all of Tokyo, which all things considered was rather concerning. There didn't seem to be much point in protesting at this stage, however, because in his experience if Seishirou was determined to make something happen it did. "What kind of date?"  
  
"Well, I was thinking we could go to the Sunshine 80 aquarium and say hello to Penguin-san…"  
  
"You're kidding me."  
  
Unfortunately, however, he wasn't.  
  
Only two more nights, Subaru reminded himself.  
  
~  
  
"Candy cane?"  
  
Subaru blinked. "Pardon?"  
  
"Would you like a candy cane?" Yuzuriha repeated patiently.  
  
"Ah, no thank you," Subaru said after a moment's pause. "I don't like mint," he added, feeling like he ought to offer some kind of justification.  
  
"I've got them in strawberry flavour too," she said helpfully, brandishing a box.  
  
Subaru felt faintly queasy; strawberry candy canes were even worse than the regular candy canes, with their sickly sweetness. "No, I'm fine," he assured her quickly. "I'm not really that hungry. I just had breakfast."  
  
"Oh." Yuzuriha looked mildly disappointed for a second before shrugging. "Oh well. Want to help me test the Christmas lights?"  
  
It was going to be a long day, Subaru realised. However, he wasn't going to risk going out again, just in case he ran into Seishirou 'coincidentally' for a third time. Admittedly the date had been… nice… but…  
  
That was the problem, actually. Spending time with Seishirou was not supposed to be _nice_. Spending time with Seishirou was supposed to involve them trading insults and trying quite literally to kill each other. Seishirou being nice was reminding Subaru rather unfortunately of the fact that he was in love with the other man, something he'd prefer not to think about if it were at all possible. It was mildly disturbing.  
  
Subaru sighed in resignation. "Where's the switch?"  
  
Christmas Eve was tomorrow. Just one more day until he could open that damn package, and after that it would be a whole _year_ before the suffering started all over again. Just think, if he died on or before the Promised Day he would never have to see another Christmas, _ever again_. Unless they had Christmas in the afterlife. Which he sincerely hoped they did not.  
  
Was it wrong to hope that the world would end before next Christmas?  
  
~  
  
When Subaru woke up the next morning, the first thing he realised was that it was now Christmas Eve and he could technically open his sister's present to him. The second thing he noticed was that there was a folded sheet of paper on his bedside table, which he was quite sure had not been there the night before.  
  
Curiously, he reached over and unfolded it only to be greeted by more of the pink sparkly gel pen, which in addition was now also scented with something that was presumably intended to be some kind of berry but came a lot closer to 'cloyingly artificial'. He wondered if Hokuto was actually trying to annoy him. Retrospectively, it did seem like something she'd do.  
  
"Don't even THINK about opening that present, mister! No way, uh uh, do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars! It's not Eve yet, is it?! NO. So you can just wait, got it? And you'd better appreciate your present, dammit, or I'll be annoyed.  
  
Love, Hokuto!  
  
PS-- I invited Sei-chan. Don't give me that look! It's for your own good!! Okay, maybe it's for my good. Same dif."  
  
The letter slipped from nerveless fingers to lie forgotten on the floor, Subaru staring blankly into space. Sei-chan. She still called him Sei-chan?  
  
… Wait, she'd invited Seishirou? What did she mean, she'd invited him? Invited him where? Invited him _how_? And was there any way to get out of it?  
  
Incomprehension soon gave way to mild panic as the message of the letter began to actually sink in. He didn't want to celebrate Christmas! In fact, he especially didn't want to celebrate Christmas with Seishirou, and he was already going insane surrounded by people filled with Christmas spirit. For a country where Christmas wasn't even a National holiday, he seemed overwhelmingly outnumbered by people obsessing over it. Arashi was the only one who hadn't completely lost the plot, and even she had agreed (if somewhat reluctantly) to participate in the celebrations that evening.  
  
Worse than that, though, the comment telling Subaru he'd better appreciate his present was quite frankly ominous-- why did Hokuto feel the need to tell him this, instead of just assume he would? It wasn't like he was a particularly ungrateful person-- and furthermore, it sounded like he was going to have to open it while Seishirou was there. If it were something embarrassing (which, knowing Hokuto, it _was_ ), he would never live it down.  
  
Then again… well, Hokuto wasn't actually physically there, was she? So really, there was absolutely nothing stopping him from opening it now, safely getting it over and done with and hiding the present before Seishirou had arrived. If he was lucky, he might even have enough time to devise some kind of escape plan.  
  
His cunning plan was foiled, however, by Hokuto's even more cunning one: she had clearly pre-guessed him, and when he reached down to pull the package out from under his bed he received a mild electric shock. Wards, he soon figured out, but he couldn't seem to disable them whatever he did, and he finally had to concede defeat after about an hour of failed attempts. Being dead clearly afforded one certain advantages.  
  
It seemed a bit unfair that his sister still had the upper hand over him nine years after her death, somehow.  
  
When Kamui came into Subaru's room later to tell him that they were going out now (was he sure he didn't want to come?), he was confused to find Subaru sitting on the floor leaning against his bed looking like he was torn between laughing and bashing his head into the wall. Subaru was holding a small scrap of notepaper in his hand; Kamui might have been interested to know what it said.  
  
"Su~baru~," it read in sparkly pink, "do you think I'm stupid?! Duh I'm going to use wards. Don't even try to escape, either! I KNOW YOU!! And don't be mean to Sei-chan!"  
  
Then again, Kamui would probably just be even more confused. So maybe it was better that he didn't see it.  
  
"Are you okay, Subaru?"  
  
"Huh?" Subaru was not entirely with it today, Kamui noticed with concern. "Oh. Yes, I'm fine. Have fun, I'll still be here when you get home." _Unless I've committed ritual suicide by then_ , but he didn't say that.  
  
"If you're sure," Kamui said dubiously, and unknowingly left Subaru to his misery.  
  
~  
  
By the time Seishirou had made his way into the Imonoyama mansion-- which was almost depressingly easy, actually, particularly with Subaru being the only Seal around-- Subaru had deteriorated into a nervous wreck, still sitting where Kamui had left him and rocking nervously.  
  
"Subaru-kun, are you going to sit there all evening?" Seishirou asked tactfully.  
  
Subaru stared at him for a while before answering. "Maybe."  
  
"I don't think your sister would like that," Seishirou pointed out after some thought.  
  
Subaru was tempted to be rebellious and say something like 'good for her', but given the possibility that Hokuto might find a way to yell at him-- in pink sparkly pen, no less-- he decided it wouldn't be the most brilliant idea after all. "I hate Christmas," he said instead.  
  
"Yes, I know," Seishirou said dryly. "You've mentioned it several times. Are you going to get up yourself, or do I have to pick you up?"  
  
Subaru didn't really want Seishirou to pick him up, and it was the kind of thing the assassin would do, so he retrieved Hokuto's package and stood up. "Now what?"  
  
Seishirou shrugged. "Aren't you going to open your sister's present? She seemed very excitable about it."  
  
That's right, the present. Sadly enough, after six nights of infuriating temptation Subaru had almost forgotten about it. "I don't know," he said, because he was afraid of what was in it, but then because he loved his sister and she'd be annoyed if he didn't open it, "Okay."  
  
He unwrapped it slowly and without ripping the paper, partly because that was the kind of person he had always been and partly because he could tell it was irritating Seishirou, though the other man would never say so. His expression of interested patience was quite authentic-looking, really, but Subaru found he knew Seishirou a bit better than he used to and can see through it. Maybe this was a good thing, or maybe not.  
  
He wasn't quite sure what he was expecting to find-- maybe a book about gay sex, he wouldn't put it past her-- but he was pretty sure that this wasn't it. Green cloth folded neatly in a box, and when he picked it up a slip of paper tumbled out.  
  
It was written in ordinary black ink, this time. "I ran out of the pink one," it explained. "This stupid boring black pen was all I could find. Sheesh, you'd think they'd have a better range, but no! Anyway, I hope you like your Christmas present. If you don't, too bad!! Think of it of as a combined Christmas present for me and Sei-chan too. Green matches your eyes. It'll look much better on you than all those yucky monochromes you insist on wearing, did I teach you nothing?! Don't POUT. You are, I can see you! Anyway, go try it on or else!! ♥"  
  
It was a dress. It was a bloody _dress_. His sister performed what was probably a minor miracle to give him what was quite possibly his last Christmas present ever, and it was a dress?  
  
"Did you know about this?" Subaru demanded, waving the dress in Seishirou's face.  
  
"Hokuto-chan always did want to see you in a dress," Seishirou said idly. "I find I'm somehow unsurprised that she's determined to do so even from beyond the grave."  
  
"Answer the question!"  
  
"It depends on what your definition of knowing is, really," Seishirou said thoughtfully. "I had my suspicions. Are you going to put it on?"  
  
"Excuse me? It's a dress! Of course I'm not going to put it on!"  
  
The window slammed shut suddenly with a loud bang, though the wind was completely still. Subaru jumped, and Seishirou raised an eyebrow.  
  
"I don't think Hokuto-chan is very impressed," Seishirou commented helpfully.  
  
"Yes, thank you," Subaru muttered, "I obviously couldn't figure that out for myself."  
  
"You're welcome. I assume you'll put it on, then."  
  
"I suppose."  
  
There was a long and expectant pause where absolutely nothing at all happened.  
  
"I'm waiting for you to leave," Subaru said when it was clear that Seishirou was waiting too. "I'm not getting changed with you in the room."  
  
"That's not very fair," Seishirou argued, but it was probably a reflex response, because he went outside the room before Subaru could even reply.  
  
~  
  
It was just his luck, Subaru thought, that the dress would look good on him. He didn't _want_ the dress to look good on him. It was adding insult to injury.  
  
"Subaru-kun, may I come in yet?"  
  
"No," Subaru said. "You may _not_ come in. Now or ever."  
  
He did not want Seishirou seeing him in a dress, thank you very much. It was demeaning. Hokuto clearly had other ideas, however; the second the words were out of his mouth, the door blew mysteriously open.  
  
"It looks very nice on you, actually," Seishirou said. "Hokuto-chan was right about it matching your eyes."  
  
"I hate everything," Subaru replied dully, just for the record.  
  
"Especially Christmas?"  
  
"Especially everything," Subaru corrected, plucking at the dress and almost wondering precisely why he missed his sister so much.  
  
Seishirou took a step forward, and Subaru took a step back nervously. "What are you doing, Seishirou-san?"  
  
"Don't you trust me?" Seishirou asked charmingly. "Stop running away, Subaru-kun. I've got a Christmas present for you."  
  
"Oh, no," Subaru groaned. "Not another one. I don't want it!"  
  
"You don't know what it is yet," Seishirou chastised him.  
  
Subaru narrowed his eyes. "So what? I don't need to know what it is. I know who it's _from_."  
  
"I'm hurt," Seishirou said. Subaru would have laughed incredulously, but while he knew that Seishirou was pretending, the Angel was a very good actor, and Subaru had been raised to be polite and considerate of others. Against his will he began to feel slightly guilty, and mentally cursing his own emotional manipulability, held his hands out to accept Seishirou's present.  
  
It was neatly wrapped, but not so perfect that it looked like it had been done at the shop it was bought from. Mildly bewildered, Subaru began to take the paper off.  
  
There was a loud rip when all his intentions of careful unwrapping went out the window in a moment of shock, Seishirou looking extremely smug and Subaru glowing neon red. Oh, the irony, it burned.  
  
"S-S-Seishirou-san, you--!"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"It's a book about gay sex!"  
  
"Well, I thought you needed a hint," Seishirou said, entirely too reasonable for someone giving that kind of present away.  
  
"Hint?" Subaru squeaked, about an octave higher than usual.  
  
"Subtle wasn't working, so I decided to try something more obvious. It was Hokuto-chan's idea, in case you were wondering."  
  
Why was he not surprised?  
  
Seishirou moved forward again, and Subaru retreated backwards until the back of his knees hit the bed and there was no way left to escape, Seishirou only a foot away from him.  
  
"I don't understand what you mean, Seishirou-san," Subaru said, bordering on hysteria.  
  
"Sometimes I wonder if you simply pretend to be this oblivious to frustrate me," Seishirou muttered. "In that case, I suppose I'll have to be more persuasive."  
  
Seishirou grabbed Subaru's wrist, and before Subaru could do anything but yelp in fear, had pulled him forward into a kiss (which, coincidentally, was Subaru's _first_ kiss).  
  
Subaru did struggle, but the thing was that Seishirou was awfully persistent and a traitorous part (majority) of his mind didn't actually want to struggle. He was out of his depth, well and truly; this was far removed from any experience Subaru had lived through, and he was horribly hopelessly lost. He was drowning in a flood of overwhelming sensation, which had caused him to completely miss the bit where he'd fallen backwards onto the bed bringing Seishirou on top of him.  
  
The hand on his thigh was like being doused with cold water, and Subaru's eyes flew open in shock. What…?  
  
Then it hit him: the dress. He was wearing a blasted _dress_.  
  
"Seishirou-san, what are you-- we-- I--" Subaru took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. "What are you _doing_?"  
  
"Subaru-kun," Seishirou said, sounding rather like he was resisting the urge to bang his head into something quite hard, "I was hoping that you wouldn't need the book _this_ early."  
  
Subaru blushed for the second time that evening. "That's not… I didn't mean… I mean, I know _that_ , but…"  
  
"Subaru-kun, I have been incredibly patient," Seishirou explained clearly. "It is Christmas, the dress looks good on you and I am incredibly _sick_ of being patient. You have to decide now-- is this what you want or not?"  
  
"Um," Subaru said, and blushed an even brighter crimson, because if he wasn't going to lie to himself he had to admit that it actually was and had been since he was sixteen. He didn't want to _say_ that, though, and more than that, he had never thought that it would happen- now it was, he didn't exactly know what to do about it.  
  
"Just say stop and I'll stop," Seishirou told him, evidently realising he wasn't going to get an answer more definitive than that. He hesitated. "Probably," he added reluctantly, because he should at least make an attempt to sound honest.  
  
Seishirou was far more persuasive than he had any right to be, Subaru realised later.  
  
~  
  
Come morning, there was a green dress lying crumpled on the floor next to a book that would be better left in a dark and preferably padlocked closet. Subaru rolled over sleepily, basking in the warmth and incongruous safety he felt. An arm curled around his waist, pulling him close, and he burrowed his head into its owner's chest.  
  
One moment stretched out into several, which stretched out into several more.  
  
There was a ray of sunlight falling upon Subaru's pillow, across his face, and he turned his head to get away from it. A hand moved to ruffle his hair, and Subaru blinked sleepy eyes open to find Seishirou watching him with a faint and possibly fond smirk on his face.  
  
"Mm. Morning, Seishirou-san," Subaru murmured, words punctuated by a yawn.  
  
"Merry Christmas," Seishirou answered, amused.  
  
Subaru blinked again and frowned slightly as it occurred to him he had forgotten something important. It was Christmas? Yes, that was right. His sister had given him a dress, which called the whole idea of miracles into serious question, and Seishirou--  
  
Cue blush.  
  
He was still missing something, however, and when his surroundings-- not to mention the sound of voices from downstairs-- finally sank in, it hit him like a ton of bricks. "Seishirou-san! How am I going to get you out of here? The others will be home by now!"  
  
Seishirou could have reminded Subaru that he was a master of illusion, but that would have spoiled his fun, so instead he chuckled. "Are you embarrassed, Subaru-kun? You could simply introduce me as your lover."  
  
It wasn't a serious suggestion, but… well, he could hardly be blamed for feeling evil glee at the idea of the expressions on the Seal's faces (particularly their _Kamui_ ), could he? It was a temptation that almost anybody in his position would find irresistible.  
  
"They already know who you are," Subaru pointed out exasperatedly. "You're their enemy."  
  
"How does it feel like to be sleeping with the enemy, then?"  
  
"Shut up," Subaru muttered, lacking in any better response.  
  
"Spoilsport. You're saying I can't stay for Christmas, then?"  
  
No, Subaru snapped, or at least that was what he intended to do. Somewhere between his brain and his mouth there appeared to be a technical glitch, however, which proved even his own body was against him. "I suppose so, but don't even _think_ about starting a fight."  
  
"Don't be silly, it's Christmas. Why would I start a fight?"  
  
"Don't be purposely obnoxious to--" _Kamui_ "-- the other Seals, either."  
  
"… Subaru-kun, would I do a thing like that?"  
  
Very pointed look.  
  
"Alright, I promise. Are you going to wear your new Christmas present?"  
  
"What new-- _no_."  
  
"But Hokuto-chan probably put a lot of thought into getting one that would suit you as well as that one."  
  
"NO."  
  
Seishirou was still trying to make him wear the dress even after Subaru had gotten dressed and they were heading down the stairs. ("I said no, Seishirou-san! I know you and Hokuto never had any respect for me, but novel as it is, I'd like to at least try to keep the respect I have from the other Seals!")  
  
They entered the kitchen. "Merry Christmas," Seishirou said cheerfully.  
  
"Aaah! Sakurazukamori!"  
  
"He's with me," Subaru said resignedly, and wondered if perhaps he would have to give up on that respect sooner than he'd thought. Oh well. It was good while it lasted.  
  
"What? But… Subaru, he's a Dragon of Earth!"  
  
"And you're a _Kamui_ , but you don't see me holding that against you, do you? Stop giving me that look, kid, I'm not going to kill you."  
  
"How do _I_ know that?"  
  
"It's Christmas?"  
  
It was going to be a long day. Subaru sighed and went to get himself a cup of tea; he hated Christmas. Maybe not as much as he'd hated it before, though, if he were to be completely honest about it.  
  
At least he didn't want the world to end before next Christmas.  
  
Much.


End file.
